A friend and I had a jam last night. He played me a few of his own songs and I dug a lot of the chords. He has what I call “magic” chords he throws into his songs quite tastefully. He doesn’t obsess about them and repeat them. They just find a place in the flow and find their own way home. There’s a few other tricks I am learning from him like vibrato on emotional key phrases and also the rearranged chord sequence as preludes to codas. One his more intriguing chord diversions he admitted came from a Pentangle performance he was rather taken with. Think John Renbourn and his medieval sound and you might be able to hear the beguiling Am/F interventions he used.

One of his songs had this lovely opening lick in 6/8 that moved the G shape up to a C and then onto a barred partial D doubling as a Bm. I ran it in my head about three or four times because I knew it from somewhere. He sang it low but I knew from memory another song approached it in a higher register. As we boiled the kettle for some coffee it came to me. it was Gene Clark’s “Spanish Guitar” a song Dylan said he loved and which also displays the use of “magic” chords in traditional structure. Song starts at 3:43 and is actually a variation of the chords he used. Funny thing memory!

Eventually we tapered off with a study of the descending bass line he had just used in one of his songs. I asked him if he knew Blind Faith’s “Can’t Find My Way Home”. He duly obliged.

It was as if we were back at some 1970s party! I said that Minnie Ripperton’s “Les Fleurs” does a similar thing:

and the ultimate variation on this theme would be Parliament’s “Placebo Syndrome” from Funkentelechy v The Placebo Syndrome.

Difficult one to play on guitar though!

As we took a break I was playing Brian Protheroe’s “Pinball” in Dm7 and he showed me a nicer feel in Am7 with open chord shapes. As he played I was reminded of the way he plays Steppenwolf’s “The Pusher”.

A similar open chord pattern climb seems to crop up in the middle of John Martyn’s “May You Never” but we stopped reminiscing at that point before we started retuning the guitars. I spent the rest of the evening listening to Pentangle and early John Martyn while reading a book called “Regulating Society – Bohemians, Beguines and Marginals”.

Tags:

Polton to me was a name on old maps out with the city I lived in. It sounded similar to Pilton here in the North, an area my family lived in and which was a psychic landmark on my childhood for good and ill. Because of industrial changes the traditional industries around villages like Polton had collapsed and communities drifted into the cities for work leaving these areas as quiet memorials to former times. For this reason there was no reason to go there and experience the place. It was merely a name on the map between here and there. As a child I had the odd fascination with marginal and peripheral concepts. Mysteries must be found there. Yet this place still had no hard evidence to draw me to it. I didn't even know what bus went there. I didn't even know what the larger towns near it meant. Loanhead, Lasswade.

My father and his friends did. They would often do building or construction work in these places. Very often the industrial estates where the materials were collected and stored were in these areas. My father's generation knew the long roads and tracks out of town to these places. They knew the newer roads built past and through them too. Very often they helped construct them in some way. If there was any pub of significance in these places or a reputable Social Club then there was even more of a draw.

Even the southern parts of the city that gave outlets to these places were shadowy regions to me. Southhouse, Burdiehouse, Gilmerton. Former villages swallowed up into the urban collective. I knew people who moved to houses in these areas when I was a child. I visited them as if I was going abroad on bus journeys longer than an hour. We would take sandwiches. I came home with fleas and a feeling that it was very like where I had come from but the light was different. Irvine Welsh would later use the reference to a distant relative moving out to one of these peripheral estates to imply estrangement and difference in the Mind of the parochial characters of the North; someone who had left their roots but hadn't quite made it out of town. They just went to a worse part of it.

It was in the shadow of a range of hills called the Pentlands that defines South-West Edinburgh for me. It's a vision thing. I often have dreams where I skirt some hilly terrain in winter on a single track on a single-decker bus and it is lonely and cold and approaching dangerous breakdown. It is obviously residue of the long trip home by coach on Shetland from Lerwick to Hillswick, sometimes the only one on the bus and the endless dangerous hill routes often in cold winter. Rum, Guinness and other intoxicants often lit the passenger's way. The sighting of a light on a dark afternoon in the Voes and Vales, in the folds of the rolling landscape of the mind made it hypnagogic. So these dreams signal psychic framing for me for internal dramas and narratives and concepts; in the damp shadows of the hill. And so the south west when one arrives in it displays this vista. Is this a psychic homecoming?

Later I find through genealogy that Irish immigrant ancestors lived and worked in Loanhead when the mines were thriving. So until very recently I was still staring at the maps of the south west and wondering. I lived for a while in the South East and travels and explorations often stayed within the direction and fall of that arrow. The arrival of a car made longer trips possible and the internet threw information around like no one's business and suddenly I had all the books and sources in my living room to plan and forge different travels and adventures. Polton still was not yielding any new information at this point. I explored the roads out to the South East to ancestors in Berwickshire and Lauder. I even went directly south towards Stow and Midlothian and more recent members of my father's lineage. As the trail brought me to Gorebridge I could feel a light to tug to look West where as of that point none of my antecedents had left trails.

The one time I had encountered Polton in the past was when a bunch of mad stoners and I decided to cycle out to Roslin Chapel and then cycle up the River Esk path past Wallace's cave to see where it ended. We were like Hobbits on wheels diving and dipping through the dingley dell. At the end we met a thicket of wild weedage; a bit like ourselves. Sharp brambles had to be cut through with bikes above us to gain access to the final ledge. As we reached the top of the climb and peered over we were in some post apocalyptic sand dune which was festooned with darting flights of alien birds later identified as Sand Martins. I noted this experience in memory banks for later reference and as we sought a way back to some path back to Edinburgh we found ourselves in the ambiguous dusk light of suburban Polton. I think we chained the bikes and got on a bus to come back later with a car.

It was only recently in some random happenstance that the light was shone on this place. I had been investigating something on Googlemaps after peering over a woodland called Pepper Wood at Kirkliston. Part of my trip had been to an old military building called Craigiehall Temple by Cammo. I think I was drawn to look back over references to Inverlair Lodge in the Highlands of Scotland where it is rumoured that the inspiration for the Village in The Prisoner TV series originates. I think I then went planning another trip, looking for Pishwanton Wood and a few other things which are still in the Southern aspect of Edinburgh. Somehow during these musings and perusing, par hasard my Googlemaps cursor went walkies by itself and landed in another part of the map. As I was in street view, I was surprised and fascinated by the wild bending single track road in the shade of glowering woodland that I was staring at. As I followed the road while checking the terrain on a map, I became more beguiled and eventually rather excited at the walled area that came up before my eyes. Looking on the map it seemed to be an estate of some measure with a few large Houses present. I looked them up on wikipedia and then found the odd story of Mavisbank House.

A week or two later I am in thrall to a biography of Thomas De Quincey, relating tales of where he lived to people I am in conversation with who were present for the Festival Book readings I attended near the magical Bristo area of Edinburgh where De Quincey once had lodgings. Mavisbank, I thought....that name is familiar. As I read more into De Quincey's psychic resurrection from his addiction in his late 50s, I remember and discover that he had a cottage near Polton called Mavis Bush Cottage or sometimes Mavisbank Cottage. I checked out the GoogleMap references to the winding road near Mavisbank House and down into the River Esk valley and then further up the hill toward Polton Village, where on a bend is De Quincey's House. Down in the river valley is the beginning of a path called The Cast ,which has in its middle the sand dunes I had witnessed many years ago traipsing up from Roslin with the cyclists on some narcotic derive!

A long investigation into the area and its potential is now unfolding. I discover that there is a Bowling Club and when I ask my uncle, no mean font of wisdom on lost Edinburgh, he immediately tells me he used to go there to play bowls. I eventually drive out to feel the lay of the land and whether it is car friendly. This will be a combination job I think. De Quincey would regularly walk to his publisher's Blackwoods in Edinburgh from out here in Polton and Loanhead. I think I will cycle this. The private Estates will be on foot. Already there is a strange creative derive affording random imagery from online research and physical witness. Strangely covered reservoirs, random woodland plantations, wildlife ponds, equestrian schools....

There is far more to this than meets the eye or beckons the ear or even tingles the toes. In editing, I will recall further tangents and strands in the quilted dream interface of the nocturnal fire-tending of ideas and inspirations and interactions with the songings and longings of the dark and not so silent night of the soul. Stay Tuned!

The Last Bohemians The Two Roberts - Colquhoun and MacBryde by Roger Bristow Tosh (Los Angeles, CA)'s review of The Spiv and the Architect Unruly Life in Postwar London Academic yes, but still full of life in its history. London can never be a dull subject, and when you add the post-war world of Gay Men in a new world -

"In the afterword of The Tipping Point, Gladwell described a "maven trap" as a method of obtaining information from mavens. In the book he gave the example of the toll-free telephone number on the back of a bar of Ivory soap, which one could call with questions or comments about the product. Gladwell's opinion is that only those who are passionate or knowledgeable about soap would bother to call and that this is a method by which the company could inexpensively glean valuable information about their market." Maven - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia A maven (also mavin) is a trusted expert in a particular field, who seeks to pass knowledge on to others. The word maven comes from the Hebrew, via Yiddish, and means one who understands, based on an accumulation of knowledge.[]

R. Stevie Moore - I Go Into Your Mind The Chrysanthemums 'He's Had His Bears' Lady June - Everythingsnothing/Tunion From Lady June's Linguistic Leprosy with Kevin Ayers and Brian Eno The Poets - That's the Way It's Got to Be The Poets - Now We're Thru The Poets - I've Got Two Hearts The (American) Poets' northern soul floor filler. Their other classic was of course SHE BLEW A GOOD THING. Ramases and Selket - Mind's Eye ram and sel - screw you '' Alan Bown All Along The Watchtower Los Bravos-Bring A Little Lovin´ The Neat Change - I Lied To Auntie Rolling Stones 'SWAY' Mick Taylor ascends bodily to Blues Rock Valhalla. Also featuring one of the other Mick's great vocals. String section arranged by Paul Buckmaster whose place in music history is guaranteed by his Great Work on this and 'Moonlight Mile', Elton John's 'Take Me To The Pilot' and many others. D.R. Hooker - Weather Girl Alan Bown Set - Emergency Pantherman by Pantherman Glamrock Nederglam The Zoo Gang - Intro. YOKO ONO-"MOVE ON FAST" The Man Who Found God On The Moon / Mike McGear Dead Can Dance - Ocean Lesley Duncan - Love Song (Original version) From the compilation album called "Gather In The Mushrooms - The British Acid Folk Underground ( - )". A wonderful song by Lesley Duncan in its best version. Ringo Starr - "Sunshine Life For Me (Sail Away Raymond)" Ringo Starr - "Blindman" B-side single "Back Off Boogaloo" Bob Seger and The Last Heard - Heavy Music How Lovely To Be A Woman Ann-Margret in Bye Bye Birdie. Link Wray - Fire and Brimstone John Lennon Goodnight Vienna Emma Rede - I Gotta Be With You Emma Rede (actually Irish-born Jackie Lee of 'White Horses' and 'Rupert' fame) sings this number which is a ballad popular on the Northern Soul circuit,the "B" side to her single 'Just Like a Man'. Viv Albertine - The False Heart Gary Clail - Two thieves and a liar Viv Albertine - If Love jackie lee - love is now Another rarity from the great Jacky Lee. A long way from White Horses and Rupert The Bear. Theme song by Patrick John Scott for late s soft porn trash, "Loving.Feeling" Its directed by Norman J. Warren and is about the love life of some radio DJ. ... LITTLE SISTER- "STANGA" ike and tina turner - nutbush city The Velvet Underground - Run Run Run Jerry Naylor - City Lights The Mixtures - The Pushbike Song [totp] Have A Whiff On Me by Mungo Jerry The Mynah Birds - I've Got You In My Soul – featuring Neil Young and Rick James Subway Sect-Nobody`s Scared Lhasa - Fool's Gold (Live In Montreal) A Guy Called Gerald -"Boase Up" ( Jungle/DnB Classic) alice designs - the sugarbeats apparently another Tandyn Almer Kate Bush - Them Heavy People Kate dances while Japanese singers mangle "Them Heavy People" from her debut album, "The Kick Inside" KATE BUSH - THEM HEAVY PEOPLE (REVOLVER- COMPLETE) The Beach Boys -It's About Time The Beach Boys - Only with you Slip On Through, the Beach Boys The Beatles Blue Jay Way (Remastered) The Watts 103rd St Rhythm Band. Spreadin Honey oum kalthoum en egypte et au maroc par la BBC Sister keyrouz - Marie I Just Don't Understand• (Ann-Margret ) ANN-MARGRET IN "C.C. & COMPANY" WAYNE COCHRAN LIVE Dennis Wilson and Rumbo - Sound Of Free The Beach Boys - Be With Me The Beach Boys - Little Bird Kate Bush - Breathing Live Kate Bush - Get Out Of My House vs The Shining Paul McCartney- Band on the Run Lou Reed Live Olympia Paris , Walk On The Wild Side , Heroin and White Light, White heat Jimi Hendrix - Purple Haze - Live Berkeley Doc Scott - Far Away Miles Davis - In a Silent Way/It's About That Time/In a Silent Way (/) linda perhacs - parallelograms Persephone's Jive / Neil Ardley From"Greek Variations" Neil ArdleyDirector Ian CarrTrumpet, Flugelhorn B.SmithTen.Sax / Sop.Sax C.SpeddingGuitar J.ClyneBass J.MarshallDrums Manfred Mann in Venus In Furs Some music from the Jess franco film Venus in Furs Manfred Mann Chapter 3 -Mister You're A Better Man Than I Julie Tippetts ex-Brian Auger And The Trinity with of my favorite songs fom her solo effort SUNSET GLOW "NOW IF YOU REMEMBER" & "WHAT IS LIVING?". Julie Tippetts - Mind Of A Child from album SUNSET GLOW (Utopia ) Julie Tippetts voice & piano Keith Tippett harmonium, arrangement Brian Godding guitar Mark Charig cornet Elton Dean alto saxophone Nick Evans trombone Bonnie Prince Billy - Strange Form Of Life JULIE DRISCOLL & BRIAN AUGER TRINITY - Save Me JAMES BROWN-MOTHER POPCORN FUNK DR HORSE / ''JACK,THAT CAT WAS CLEAN'' Junior Walker Live London The Ram Jam Club Can't Find My Way Home - Blind Faith JAMES BROWN ---PEOPLE WAKE UP AND LIVE BEAUTIFUL SOUL TUNE FROM , THE FLIP SIDE OF GIVE ME SOME SKIN. Funky President (People It's Bad) - James Brown [Original Speed Master] T - Rex - The Slider Les Fleurs - Minnie Ripperton Parliament - funkentelechy vs the placebo syndrome P-Funk commercial - Funkentelechy MARION ANDERSON SINGS...""BLACK ROSES", COMPOSED BY SIBELIUS, THIS WAS A FAVOURITE CONCERT SONG OF MARION ANDERSON, ACCOMPANIED BY DONALD VORHEES... ENJOY!!! The Saints - Do The Robot the table-do the standing still early punk rock from the virgin sampler " lp James Brown covers The Beatles - Something This is a rare B-side of rpm "Think" that James Brown recorded on Polydor Records. . The Now - Into The '80s David Bowie - Future Legend Middle Of The Road - "Soley Soley" Rubettes - I Can Do It The Beatles – Something Rare Promo Vid. IVY GREEN - I'm sure we're gonna make it - Rahsaan Roland Kirk - I Say A Little Prayer - Live Mark E Smith on Edinburgh - Granada Tonight // the roulettes - long cigarette The Watersons " Foot Trailer" ( Doc.) arabian dub - ali baba riddim - john holt treasure isle records

www.pbs.org Independent Lens . NEGROES WITH GUNS Rob Williams and Black Power . Radio Free Dixie | PBS From a recording studio in Havana, Cuba, Rob and Mabel Williams broadcast music of the African American freedom movement and gave voice to the ongoing fight against racial oppression. Listen to songs and show excerpts from “Radio Free Dixie “

The Shangri-Las - Remember Walking In The Sand Roe, Tommy - It's Now Winters Day on rpm vinyl Bernadette Castro Get Rid Of Him Jerry Ganey ------------ You Don't Love Me Dawn Penn No No No You Dont Love Me Jerry Ganey Who Am I NIno Tempo& perform "All Strung Out" on a popular ''s TV dance show. Mothers of Invention - Trouble Comin' Everyday Jackie Lee & The Raindrops - The loco-motion Langley Schools Music Project - "Calling Occupants" Charles Ives "They Are There!" Lou Reed - Sweet Jane from the 'take no prisoners tour' The BeatNigs – Television drug of a nation. Peggy Lee (Lover) Peggy Lee sings one of her big hits, "Lover" from the film "The Jazz Singer."

The White Horses TV Series "start sequence"

Lhasa - Rising (Official Video) NANCY HOLLOWAY Don't make me over . the olympics - i'll do a little bit more "Would You Believe" --- Jackie Lee (Mirwood) "Do The Temptation Walk" and "The Bounce" by Jackie Lee barbarella's song as written by michel magne and sung by jackie lee Giant Crab - The Three Best Songs from COMES FORTH Here are the three best tunes from the debut album by the mysterious Giant Crab, A GIANT CRAB COMES FORTH, released on UNI Records in ) "It Started with a Little Kiss" ) "Believe It or Not" ) ... Rick Nelson - Summertime Blues MaGoos-We Ain't Got Nothin' Yet (NYC) (+) investigating the Black Night riff on the way to a love for The Blues Magoos guitar player Nuggets from the Liverpool Five (Part ) The Monks Live in Germany - Monk Chant Don Covay --- It's Better To Have Honey Cone - Want Ads Marvin Gaye-T Plays It Cool KING CURTIS-A WHITER SHADE OF PALE LIVE Jimi Hendrix Shotgun Live Night Train Backing Buddy & Stacey. Oldest Known Film Footage of Jimi Hendrix Playing Guitar

Scottish Television start-up sequence Here is the proper Scottish Television start-up sequence containing Scotlandia. Enjoy wallowing in this nostalgia!!!!

The London Perambulator - short clip - Will Self, Russell Brand, Iain Sinclair This is a snippet from the documentary - The London Perambulator Next screening - Cine-City Brighton th http//londonperambulator.wordpress.com

Public Service Broadcasts Tufty - Playing near the road Tufty and his mummy dont want YOU to play near the road. It's just not safe! Tufty - Shopping - Public Information Film Always stay close to mummy when you are out shopping with her!

Milton e Lô - Clube da Esquina nº (Instrumental) Rosa Passos- E Luxo So Joyce - Misterios B-52's dirty back road Give Me Back my Man by The B-'52s Kraftwerk - Showroom Dummies Killing Joke - Bloodsport (East Side Club ..) "Mountains (live)" Music Video by Prince Prince - Mountains/Shake Your Body IT'S BEEN SO LONG- George Mcrae- Iggy & The Stooges - Kill City - Live DORY PREVIN - Beware of Young Girls DORY PREVIN - Doppelganger Helen Reddy Angie baby ON THE STREET WHERE YOU LIVE from the movie I Can See Only You by Small Circle of Friends One of the most beautiful songs to come out of the sunshine pop era of music. Released by Roger Nichols and Small Circle of Friends on their A&M album, this shows the complexity of the genre and the sheer brilliance of Roger Nichols songwriting. ... David Bowie Glastonbury Festival Acoustic The Supermen Brian Eno "King's Lead Hat" Marc Bolan & Tyrannosaurus Rex – Cat Black [Two Versions] Swans - Failure

Voyage to the End of the Universe ~ Opening Credits Voyage to the End of the Universe is the re-cut and dubbed version of the Czech film Ikarie XB . Unfortunately, there are two big sections which are only in cropped fullscreen while the rest is widescreen.

Bright Lights And You Girl by Tom Jones who are you trying to fool (instro) - dave hamilton band John Lennon - I Found Out - With Lyrics The Blue Nile NEW SONG - MEANWHILE This is taken from the Dublin gig on Nov st. It is probably the best new Blue Nile song for years..total instant classic...It starts off with a bit of banter with the crowd for around a half minute,while the vidoe footage isn't fabulous the audio is very listenable..enjoy this exclusive The Blue Nile NEW SONG - RUNAROUND GIRL Again from the Vicar St Show in Dublin Grenew song by the blue nile... God knows if these will ever even be released Yesterday's Obsession - The Phycle Echo And The Bunnymen - My White Devil Angels and Devils the b side of Silver Ravel - Gaspard de la Nuit - Le Gibet (Perlemuter) I noticed this piece was used as the soundtrack to the Beatles nightmarish tour of The Far East in a documentary tonight. I first fell for it in the movie The Hunger. Denueve and Sarandon. U Roy - The Great Psalms I-Roy - Don't Touch I Man Locks I'll Remember April - Erroll Garner The Smiths - Bigmouth Strikes Again (Rank album live footage) The Smiths - Barbarism Begins Home (Live) Broadcast on The Tube Bread make it with you Guitar Man-Live (Album The Best Of Bread) Dr. John, The Night Tripper - Zu Zu Mamou Picture Box Theme Haunting waltz to this much loved classic. The Passage - Troops Out The Fall - Wolf Kidult Man (From The Basement) The Fall - Can Can Summer Sheila & The B. Devotion - Spacer (extended) Spirogyra - A Canterbury Tale From the album 'Old Boot Wine'. Dennis Olivieri - I Cry In The Morning to YouTube Geeshie Wiley - Last Kind Words MY LAGAN LOVE - MARGARET BARRY AND MICHAEL GORMAN Kenny Lynch - Poof! I think this was Kenny's BEST one, just my opinion, don't through stones! Delfonics La La Means I Love You LIVE (Delphonics) . The Peddlers - Walk on the Wild Side Resident band "Expresso Bongo" writer, Wolf Mankowitz' Pickwick Club Rudy A Message To You - The Locomotive Paul McCartney - C-Moon Michel Polnareff - Petite, petite to YouTube Fontaine & Areski - Ca va faire un hit ! RARETE (OPTION STEREO) Linda Perhacs - Chimacum Rain Obscure psychedelic folk singer Linda Perhacs released her only album Parallelograms in to scant notice or sales. Perhacs' album was rediscovered by record enthusiasts and grew in popularity with the rise of the New Weird America movement. ... CC-Lab Vashti Bunyan From Here to Before This Mess We Keep Reshaping, by FOUND Blue Mink Vs The Hollies - Gasoline Alley Bred The Nerves - Hanging On The Telephone, Original version Neon Bottles EP Psychic Youth - The Future Now Units - Digital Stimulation Bill Fay-Some Good Advice Rolling Stones Waiting On A Friend Dynamic Sound Studios, Kingston, Jamaica, Nov./Dec. 1972# Found. - Mullokian Santo & Johnny - Sleep Walk A certain ratio- forced laugh Amália Rodrigues - Ave-Maria Fadista e outros fados Peter Warlock -- The Curlew (Music for William Butler Yeats Poems) Balulalow by Peter Warlock sung by the Choir of King's College, Pink Industry - creaking doors Gesualdo Death for Five Voices / I'm Spartacus (Ext. Length) Gil Bernal - The Next Train Out S E E D S - Pus hing Too Hard watched the incredibly tripped out sixties UK psychodrama "Herostratus" last night and now tracing the line between The Sugarbeats through Grapefruit to The Only Ones . Beatles - It's All Too Much - original longer mixed Alice Cooper - No More Mr Nice Guy Marc Bolan "lofty skies" Marc Bolan And T.Rex - Chariot Choogle Stavely Makepeace - Slippery Rock s ENNIO MORRICONE / EDDA DELL'ORSO -"Alla Serenita" Royalettes - It's Gonna Take A Miracle

Biff Rose on The Smother's Brother's show,Best known for writing "Fill Your Heart" recorded by David Bowie. Another track "Molly" is a great song Myrtle's Pies

Evie Sands - I Can't Let Go alice designs - the sugarbeats t "Little Girl Lost & Found" by The Garden Club Written by Tandyn Almer, performed by Ruthann Friedman and Tom Shipley from Brewer and Shipley. On "Soft Sounds for Gentle People ". http//kipsunshine.blogspot.com/ "little miss muffet she knows how to rough it, she's been on her own ever since she was nine" SIX-FIVE Special - part of -- Jackie Dennis Connie Francis - No Better Off Talking Heads - Live in Rome - Born Under Punches

web.mac.com -Lud Heat Poet Iain Sinclair takes us on a psychogeographical force-field trip through the mysteries of Whitechapel and the Hawksmoor churches. Paul Green introduces this unique tape. ,

Another tuning is called "troll tuning" (A-E-A-C?). Troll tuning is used for the fanitullen tunes, also called the devil's tunes; in the Valdres district of Norway, using this particular tuning is called "greylighting", a reminder ththe fiddler tuned his fiddle like this when the morning was near, and he had played himself through a number of other tunings. Legend had it that the fiddler learned fanitullen tunes from the devil. This tuning limits the melodic range of the tunes, and is therefore sparsely used.

Dust bunny - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Dust bunnies (dustbunnies) are small clumps of dust thform under furniture and in corners thare not cleaned regularly. They are made of hair, lint, dead skin, dust, and sometimes light rubbish and debris, and are held together by static electricity and felt-like-entanglement. ...

.the Oxford English Dictionary cites The Complaynt of Scotland as the earliest source for numerous words, including axis, barbarian, buffoon, cabinet, crackling, decadence, excrement, heroic, humid, imbecile, moo, parallel, robust, suffocation, superb, timid and water-lily. The Complaynt of Scotland - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The book is a continuation of the war of words between Scotland and England in the th century. Books in England were asserting the idea of uniting the two countries, with England dominant, and this was an answer to these works. ... Got to love the list of dances from The Complaynt as mentioned on Scotland's Music The DancinGIsDonehttp//www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/music/scotlandsmusic/pdfs/scotlandsmusic_.pdf ..in the fyrst, thai dancit al cristyn mennis dance, the northt of scotland, huntis vp, the comount entray, lang plfut of garian, Robene hude, thom of lyn, freris al, ennyrness, the loch of slene, the gosseps dance, leuis grene, makky, the speyde, the flail, the lammes vynde, soutra, cum kyttil me neykyt vantounly, schayke leg, fut befor gossep, Rank the rute, baglap and al, ihonne ermistrangis dance, the alman haye, the bace of voragon, dangeir, the beye, the dede dance, the dance of kylrynne, the vod and the val, schaik a trot.

I Feel Like Saying A Beatnik Poem B Movie Style clip from High School Confidential

Albums I still listen to - Key Lime Pie, Heaven Or Las Vegas, Dummy, Hounds of Love and My Life in the Bush of Ghosts.

"Silberer concluded that the conditions necessary to produce autosymbolic phenomena were “drowsiness and an effort to think”, something familiar to most of us from our school days. The struggle of these two “antagonistic elements” elicits the autosymbolic response." = STRANGE TRANCES IN THE CLASSROOM AFTER HEAVY SCHOOL DINNERS Hypnagogia | Articles | Features | Fortean Times UK Dozy Gary Lachman wakes from his reverie to explore the visions and brainwaves of the half-asleep. The brief transition between wakefulness and sleep we experience each night has been known by many names

"In Daniel Defoe described a tradesman involved in the "buying of cochineal, indigo, galls, shumach, logwood, fustick, madder, and the like" as both dry-salter and salter. The Salters' Livery Company tells us that "some of the members who were salt traders were also 'Drysalters' and dealt in flax, hemp, logwood, cochineal, potashes and chemical preparations."" As for the Haberdasher.... "The word appears in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Haberdashers were initially pedlars, sellers of small wares, such as needles, buttons, etc. The word could derive from the Icelandic haprtask 'pedlars' wares' or the sack in which the pedlar carries them. In this sense, a haberdasher (Scandinavian name) would be very close to a mercer (French name). A haberdasher would retail smallwares, the goods of the pedlar, while a mercer would specialize in "linens, silks, fustian, worsted piece-goods and bedding"."

nice...almost saves me a trip urban exploration,the goblin castle you tube clip the eerie woods and ruins of yester castle and its underground chamber `the goblin ha` which has dungeons now sealed off below that were once a prison to captives brought back from the crusades,

The Franco London Orchestra-Theme from Robinson Crusoe Are You Being Served - Instrumental Sweet - Turn It Down Geordie Scene, (semi-live). Harry Warren - Jeepers Creepers THE NEW MUSIC OF REGINALD FORESYTHE. Garden Of Weed Dennis Potter's 'Pennies From Heaven' - Pick Yourself Up Erkin koray-Cemalim Heathcote Williams - I Will Not Pay Taxes Until

Heathcote Williams and Emily lloyd - "Tell me all the swear words you know" After Lynda showed her stockings, suspenders, and knickers to the entire bus barn, her father has her evaluated by a psychiatrist. Emily Lloyd is Lynda, Heathcote Williams is Dr. Holroyd in 's "Wish You Were Here" directed by David Leland

Anthony Newley - Within You Without You The Prisoner – Number 48 's trial 'Still A Weirdo' - KT Tunstall live MacSorley's, Glasgow th The cookies - Don't say nothing bad about my baby The Three Bells - Softly In The Night ( Girl Groups Sounds) The Cookies - I Want A Boy For My Birthday BILLY FURY- ONCE UPON A DREAM

Steve Jones demonstrates Sex Pistols guitar riffs

Work is a Four-Letter Word An excerpt from "Work is a Four Letter Word" adapted from Henry Livings' play "Eh?" Starring David Warner and Cilla Black.

True Affection by The Blow the blow hey boy seattle THE BEATLES Remasters! /// . Baby It's You - (PLEASE PLEASE ME) - barbara lewis - baby i'm yours Marion Maerz - I go to sleep Marion - later Marion Maerz - recorded "I go to sleep" by Ray Davies (head of the Kinks) in . Marion was the best that the German music scene of the 60s had to offer. The record was produced by Larry Page (producer of the Troggs). The song was released in Germany and UK as well. Troggs- 66,5,4,3,2,1 B- Seite von "Any way that you want me" Winston's Fumbs - Real Crazy Apartment ,this is the A-side of the only single released by this band. Chris Hodge - We're On Our Way Beatles One after rooftop concert The Traits - Nobody Loves The Hulk The Troggs - Anyway you want me mit Lyrics Sly & The Family Stone - Frisky Que Sera Sera - Sly & The Family Stone carmel im not afraid of you Boogie On _ Kenyon Hopkins A Lovely Way to Die theme song Jackie Wilson' The Damned - Theta Cocteau Twins - Melonella The Beatles - I Want To Tell You JAMES LAST U Humbah Reginald Bosanquet Dance with me Quitters Never Win Dr.John Hall & Oates MusikLaden part - Do What You Want Hall & Oates - She's Gone video Mott The Hoople - Roll Away The Stone Kenny - Fancy Pants Glitter Band - Angel Face - Live Performance The Glitter Band - Goodbye My Love Linda Ronstadt & Leo Sayer - Tumbling Dice The Wards Of Court - How Could You Say One Thing Turn To The Right - Spirit Spirit - Mashed Potatoes David Essex-Lamplight ( Top of the pops ) The Faces ~ Pool Hall Richard Leo Sayer - Long Tall Glasses HQ iggy pop & the stooges - Consolation Prizes - Original Punks David Essex - Rock On DOGS evil heart Nina Simone - You'll Never Walk Alone DOGS charlie was a good boy Dogs-Algomania- French PUNK ROCK The Beatles- The Ballad of John and Yoko Larry And Tommy - Here Comes The Judge Warm Gun - Chinese Gangster / Crapy Hands THE BRATS-be a man- Sakkarin - Sugar Sugar (TOTP --) Pan's People You Can Really Rock'n'Roll Me -written by Mike Batt featuring Cherry Gillespie on vocals, and Chris Spedding on guitar.

Another Hard Day's Night by Ken Thorne on Beatles-Help LP from . The Yardbirds - Heart Full Of Soul THE KINKS "See my friends" In a widely quoted statement by Barry Fantoni, s celebrity and friend of The Kinks, The Beatles, and The Who, he recalled thit was also an influence on The Beatles "I remember it vividly and still think it's a remarkable pop song. I was with The Beatles the evening ththey actually saround listening to it on a gramophone, saying 'You know this guitar thing sounds like a sitar. We must get one of those.'"The song's radical departure from popular music conventions proved unpopular with the band's American following—it hit number in the UK, but stalled number in the US.

cathy la creme-i married a cult figure.wmv travis wammack - night train '' coooool instrumental Chrome - Something Rhythmic unreleased studio outtake . The vibes Inside- from The Loving Awareness Band is such a beautiful piece of music. No other radio stations that I remember ever played their music, so my memories ... Timmy Thomas - Why can't we live together Brian Protheroe Pinball "Lights Out" by Harvey Mandel Off of "Cristo Redentor", Coloured Balls - Won't You Make Up Your Mind Love Good Old Fashioned Dream " Love- Time Is Like A River Sexist Pig - Country Joe McDonald Love - Who Are You LOVE- Which Witch Is Which "Be Thankful For What You've Got" by Arthur Lee Velvet Underground - Squeeze - Send no Letter Paul McCartney - Red Rose Speedway - - Big Barn Bed England's Glory - City of Fun Velvet Underground - Squeeze – Friends Rare VU Album The Velvet Underground - Train Round the Bend Bobby Hendricks - Psycho Tower of Power - Only so much oil in the ground The Boys Next Door - These Boots Are Made For Walking Ain't That Peculiar - Japan Japan performing Swing and My New Career on the Old Grey Whistle Test. p.j.proby - after last night for the real proby fans left out there this is another unreleased great demo from p.j. also self penned, recorded by jackie de shannon, took from old cassette tape, done best i can with sound. need to turn down volume a little. Troggs - (BEST QUALITY) Night Of The Long Grass (Promo film) THE TROGGS - FROM HOME -

rolling stones - rice krispies commercial

Cliff Richard - Throw Down A Line Goodbye Gemini - Jackie Lee Rumplestiltskin - Rumplestiltskin Born To Lose - Jackie Lee Magpie - Thames TV theme footsteps in the dark ISLEY BROTHERS The Isley Brothers - If You Were There Caravan Of Love - The Isley Brothers Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias - Snuff Rock ( A Side ) The Jaynettes , Sally , Go Round The Roses Langley Schools Music Project - "Calling Occupants" We are the Rulers - England World Cup Song Hotpants Romance - It's a Heatwave Donna Summer - Love to Love You Baby (pt 1 of ) the attack - anymore than i do I love to love - Bjork Lynsey De Paul - Sugar me # - "SIX-FIVE Special" -- Jackie Dennis The Attack Hi Ho Silver Lining Creative Source - Who Is He and What Is He to You Wings - Band On The Run (Original Video)

Brothers Johnson - Come Together Brothers Johnson - Get The Funk Out My Face PINK FAIRIES DO IT (LIVE)Glastonbury ( be ) Pink Fairies-Teenage Rebel Never Neverland Twink - Sparrow is a sign Stealers Wheel - "You Put Something Better Inside Me" (the warriors soundtrack) gene chandler - get down Just Be True-Gene Chandler Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress - The Hollies richard twice - if i knew you were the one Imagination by The Cherry People on MGM .

STEVE TOOK'S MUSICAL ASSOCIATIONS WITH DAVID BOWIE Steve Took appeared on four Bowie Songs for the BBC 'Top Gear' John Peel programme. These have now been released on CD. See image below for more info. Below is the full version of one of these songs (Karma Man). Steve Peregrine Took - Syd's Wine

Jigsaw - Sky High the o'jays i'll never forget you Cocteau Twins - Pepper Tree (live ) Live Continental Örebro Sweden Cocteau Twins - Strange Fruit. (Live Version) Taken from the John Peel show ... Amazing version of this dark and disturbing song... Gladys Knight & The Pips - I Wish It Would Rain Hey Love - TV commercial for R&B album The Delfonics - Hey Love Smokey Robinson & The Miracles - Much Better Off Ian Dury and the Blockheads- What a waste (Revolver) Ian Dury - clevor trevor Ian Dury and The Blockheads - Wake Up and Make Love With Me Margaret Mandolph - I Wanna Make You Happy.wmv 10 CC - GOOD MORNING JUDGE "Whats Wrong With My World" PJ Proby You Can't Come Home Again (if You Leave Me Now) PJ Proby Gwen Owens - Just Say You're Wanted (And Needed) Farewell by Ayshea – Written and Produced by Roy Wood Ayshea Brough was one of the stars of the Si Fi series UFO (her character was also called Ayshea) She was also a model and was the presenter on the TV Pop show 'Lift off I Am Controlled By Your Love by Helene Smith Forbidden Zone - Gran Finale SPOILER Shocking Blue - Love Buzz After Tea We Will Be There After Tea Fancy - Wild Thing ICE-Time Will Tell Labi Siffre " I Got The" From album "Remember My Song", VELVETT FOGG - YELLOW CAVE WOMAN Jaan Pehechaan Ho Clip from the Indian film "Gumnaam", featured the beginning of the Ghost World movie. The Smoke - High in a room "Ain't No Greens In Harlem" by The Vibrations

The Surrealist Bridges of Google Earth Artist Clement Valla, who you remember from his line-tracing project, has a nifty series which consists of bridges zoomed in upon in Google Earth just so, revealing surreal, bendy, glitch-infused landscapes. A few of the coolest below

The earliest literary reference to Grub Street appears in , by the English poet, John Taylor. "When strait I might descry, The Quintesscence of Grubstreet, well distild Through Cripplegate in a contagious Map" John Taylor (poet) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia After his waterman apprenticeship he served in Essex's fleet, and was present Flores in and the siege of Cadiz. "Many of Taylor's works were published by subscription; i.e., he would propose a book, ask for contributors, and write it when he had enough subscribers to undertake the printing costs. He had more than sixteen hundred subscribers to The Pennylesse Pilgrimage; or, the Moneylesse Perambulation of John Taylor, alias the Kings Magesties Water-Poet; How He TRAVAILED on Foot from London to Edenborough in Scotland, Not Carrying any Money To or Fro, Neither Begging, Borrowing, or Asking Meate, Drinke, or Lodging., published in . Those who defaulted on the subscription were chided the following year in a scathing brochure entitled A Kicksey Winsey, or, A Lerry Come-Twang, which he issued in the following year." This the chap who wrote The Praise of Hemp Seed. "Taylor cannot be accounted as anything more than a voluminous scribbler, possessed of irrepressible assurance and facile wit of a coarse vein. He had, however, the saving grace 0f acute observation of men and manners, and this has given his productions a certain value for the student of social history. The term “literary bargee” befits him much better than his own self-styled title “the water-poet”" Stewart Home What was Grub Street is Milton Street but cut off by the Barbican development.... shame... the old vibe has completely gone... and no sign of the notorious brothel district of Pict-Hatch around the corner the end of Fortune Street either.... Whitecross Street has been yuppiefied... and to think it was once synonymous with poverty! I guess the pub mentioned is now long gone? "The Crown" in Phoenix Alley, Long Acre Nathaniel Mist was an 18th century British printer and journalist whose Mist's Weekly Journal was the central, most visible, and most explicit opposition newspaper to the whig administrations of... Sir, – In his review of Valerie Rumbold’s edition of The Dunciad, Henry Power makes reference to “the Whiggish periodical”, Mist’s Weekly Journal ( ). The most notorious Jacobite on Grub Street, Nathaniel Mist was far from being a Whig. In , soon after the spat with Pope, Mist found himself exiled in France after managing to libel George II, his late father, the Prime Minister Robert Walpole, and the Duchess of Kendal in one go. His household was arrested, his printshop ransacked, and his paper relaunched in his absence as the slightly more temperate Fog’s Weekly Journal. Pope well have been justified in attacking Mist and his paper, but I have just spent the last few years ploughing through every single issue of both Mist’s and Fog’s and still don’t think the paper deserves to be called tedious, let alone Whiggish – whichever be the worse. MATTHEW SYMONDS This guy is supposedly the author of A General History of Pyrates which some thought was written by Daniel Defoe who was "inserted" into Mist's printing and political milieu as a spy. Same man who spied up in Edinburgh prior to The Act of Union and who perhaps plagiarised a friend's method ad another's tale to write a formative classic novel in Crusoe. Pyrates mentions Captain Mission and the micronation of Libertatia in Madagascar - who turns up later in William Burrough's Cities of The Red Night. See..the Watermen... RE Pyrates "Although this book was attributed to Daniel Defoe in , editions published since have restored the unknown character Captain Charles Johnson as author, in light of a comprehensive refutation of the case for Defoe's authorship.", Youtube Pirate Burroughs A pirate skeleton channels the late, great William S. Burroughs. http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secession Kind of a Captain Mission thing http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Mission even if the moment has gone. Rather than be an economic or political migrant or Get to France or Get to Russia or even a REFUGEE how about a Frestonia http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frestonia or passport To Pimlico. http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=kErQAoqlds or even Sealand! http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiJMxLbc

Orson Welles on Cold Reading Orson Welles discusses the nature of 'cold reading', a type of analysis used by many phony psychics and fortune tellers to trick their customers into thinking they indeed do have special powers, and how some can become so skilled it ththey actually trick themselves into believing they are truly psychic.

The Secret World of Self Storage [Part ] [Part ] Chris heads down to his storage unit whenever he’s going through a rough patch, spending time with his prize possession; Derek the dalek who always lifts his spirits. I CAN UNDERSTAND IT (Full-Length Album Version) - Bobby Womack "Child of the Streets" by Sam Dees Myrna Summers GOD GAVE ME A SONG (Original) SPANKY WILSON easy lover Spanky Wilson - Sunshine Of Your Love basil kirchin - the strange affair theme

http//www.capitalcollections.org.uk/image.php? 'The Life History of a Slum Child' focusing on the community living in the Canongate.

Ant Music by Adam and the Ants Screemer - Interplanetary Twist. Headstone - "Turn Your Head" The Reaction - Talk Talk Talk Talk The very first track of The Reaction, Mark Hollis's first band. The song was written by Mark Hollis and Ed Hollis. The early version of this track was called Talk Talk Talk Talk, and it became the name of the famous Talk Talk band, and one of their popular track, Talk Talk This song was released I Hate Everybody Johnny Winter

marginalia...probably more exciting than chapbooking and grangerizing Book Lovers Fear Dim Future for Notes in the Margins In a digital world, scholars see an uncertain fate for an old and valued practice. "A Biographical History of England, from Egbert the Greto the Revolution consisting of characters disposed in different classes, and adapted to a methodical catalogue of engraved British Heads intended as an essay towards reducing our biography to system, and to a help to the knowledge of portraits interspersed with a variety of anecdotes, and memoirs of a Gerat number of persons, not to be found in any other biographical work. With a preface, shewing the utility of a collection of engraved portraits to supply the defect, and answer the various purposes, of medals, by the Rev. J. Granger, vicar of Shiplake in Oxfordshire. (Fifth edition, six volumes, London, )."

Do you know the story of the Black Night riff? Way back to Ricky Nelson's Summertime! http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=fujdR-I Via some neopsych bands like the Blue Magoos http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOGRTLnuKY&feature=related and pre Status Quo Spectres! Oh and the liverpool Five! http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylTUJEfJKY

Scimitar GTE car chase with George Lazenby A clip clip form the film "Universal Soldier starring George Lazenby as "Ryker"; a mercenary commander and weapons expert who is commissioned to train an army for an exiled African leader. There is some superb footage of the Reliant Scimitar GTE SE in the film. I especially like this clip , The film that turned me on to Philip Goodhand Tait and George Lazenby!

The Gary Glitter sound was hit upon by just goofing in the studio, not unlike the way Elvis, Scotty and Bill found the "new sound" Sam Phillips was after by improvising an Arthur Cradup song. Gary's producer, manager and friend Mike Leander, like Sam Phillips, was also looking for a "new sound." Leander had been studying African Burundi rhythm patterns, as well as the recordings of Dr. John, the New Orleans band Exhuma and the white South African John Kongos' experimentation with tribal rhythms and electronic discordia which resulted in "He's Gonna Step On You Again," arguably one of the finest hard rock singles of the early seventies. It's possible thLeander also have been listening to The Troggs single "The Raver", which has all the earmarks of a prototype to Gary's sound. Mike Leander I was very influenced by Dr John and the whole Afro-rock sound. There was a lot of very good black voodoo rock coming out of New Orleans, and all this music was coming over just as I was trying to turn away from bubblegum and get involved in rhythm and drums.I had my own technique of playing drums, which was very African-based - lots of tom toms - and the sound effects we got on the drums and various other instruments. So it was a combination of my drumming and John Hudson's wizardry on the knobs.

James Brown - There was a time live Boston

William S. Burroughs on Dreams (EKF) Excerpts from a lecture by William S. Burroughs on public discourse, recorded the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics on , . The complete minute sound file can be downloaded the Naropa Poetics Audio Archives http//www.archive.org/details/naropa_william_s_burroughs_lect

Rat Bastard Protective Association - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Rat Bastard Protective Association was an informal group of Beat and Funk artists who worked and exhibited together in San Francisco, California from the late 60s to the mid70 s. The association was founded by and the group's name was coined by Bruce Conner It makes me very happy to get Bruce conner, Wallace Berman and Rebecca Solnit in the one post!, When told of his impact on music videos and his status as "the Father of MTV,", Conner would reply, "Not my fault." , Rebecca Solnit Very nice, thank you! The RBPA name was a hybrid of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB) and the Scavengers Protective Assn, which you can read more about Chris Carlsson's Shaping San Francisco site.....

Toni Basil Breakaway David Byrne & Brian Eno - Mea Culpa - Humanoid - Stakker Humanoid Baby I Love You So / King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown theme from VALLEY OF THE DOLLS sung by DORY PREVIN The Hidden Cameras - I believe in the good of life John Cooper Clarke - Chickentown John Cooper Clarke - Midnight Shift The Truth - " Who's wrong ?" release on UK Pye from the pair of London hairdressers who after the obligatory Beatles cover released some fine tunes. This one ,"Who's wrong" ,a snarling self depreciating slab of UK Freakbeat. Incidnetly one of the pair later went on to score a UK top ten hit as Nosmo King with plastic Wigan

Susan Collard - The Recombinant Alice book -- FUNKADELIC ( Icka Prick ) "If You Don't Love Me No More"THE JONES GIRLS Mary Jane Girls - All Night Long Southside Movement-Funk Talk Bernard "Pretty" Purdie Ghostnotes Boogaloo Joe Jones - I Feel the Earth Move Gene McDaniels-Walk With A Winner.mp "I like the things about me that I once despised" by Wayne.Davis Edwin Starr - Easin' In The Counts - Magic Ride from the album "Funk Pump" Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Deja Vu Lyrics If I had ever been here before I would probably know just what to do Don't you? If I had ever been here before on another time around the wheel I would probably know just how to deal With all of you. And I feel Like I've been here before Feel Like I've been here before And you know The Troggs - Love Is All Around

www.artfagcity.com IMG MGMT The Nine Eyes of Google Street View Guest post by JON RAFMAN [Editor's Note IMG MGMT is an annual image-based artist essay series. Today's invited artist, Jon Rafman, lives and works in Montreal, Canada. His work will be featured next month in the exhibition POKE!

Tags:

I wish to collect together the sonic dream reveries of my latest peregrinations. Inspired by De Quincey of course, I felt echoings in my dream chambers as I absorbed his thoughts on the machinery of dreaming and set out the old maps and latest Google intrusions into the dipping valleys of De Quincey's walking life around the southern aspects of Old Edinburgh. As he resurrected himself from despair by reducing his prodigious dosage and also by reckoning extensive physical and mental mileage by pacing out the surrounds of his garden and entering the vortex in a protracted loop; he found himself forced to reflect in the mirror of his mind the predisposition he had for external physical calibration of a defective aspect of his dreaming, provoked by childhood trauma exposing deeper eternal human conditions and registrations.

As I perused this matter and traced the possible steps of De Quincey's regular lengthy walks from Lasswade to Edinburgh to meet with his publisher's Blackwood's, there appeared in my tissues, echoes of attempts at producing the tone of the dream state in music.

Last night in conversation with a fellow traveller as he read from his poetry inspired by the train ride home through a memorable sunset, I asked if he knew the song Pinball by Brian Protheroe and he played me the whole song from memory. A unique piece of work it epitomises for me a psychogeographic dream sequence in song.

Let us ponder over the coda of Like To Get To Know You by Spankey and His Gang arranged by Bob Dorough and Stu Scharf.

The spectral heatstroke delirium of the arrangement of Bobby Goldsboro's - Summer(The First Time)is an education in almost surreal easy listening.

If we wish to frame these sounds as dream sequences then we must consider Curt Boettcherr's production with Millennium and their Karmic Dream Sequence No 1 ( a song that lingers on in the opening of David Bowie's Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed)

Perhaps we may be able to identify and discern the qualities of these compositions: their repetitions, their lingering string arrangements and confused flurries, their distracted detours and turnoffs from the beaten paths.

Of course none of this would have appealed to De Quincey himself I guess. So far I have not discovered his relationship with music, although he did attend some opera performances. De Quincey inpired many artists and the composer Berlioz is one. Symphonie Fantastique is reputed to be based on readings of the Confessions of An English Opium Eater.

Of course film is perhap s the great dream medium of the last century and one of its greatest visionaries echoed the Dies Irae of Berlioz in his apprach to The Shining.

Today I reviewed some of Steven Connor's work. His most recent essay on his site is called "Doing Without Art". It mentions a few people, mainly Badiou, Jean Paul Sartre and Ellen Dessanayake. The discussion veered towards concepts of Inaesthetics.

Connor's conclusion:

"What to Do Without Art

Let me conclude by stating baldly what the advantages might be of living in a world in which the notion of art had lost all its mystical and wish-fulfilling accretions and had dwindled back into the poor-but-honest condition of naming something brought about through the exercise of art or skill. There seem to me really to be three.

The first is that we might be able to pay more discriminating attention to the various constituent powers, qualities and effects that are characteristic of the different arts – narrative, imitation, organisation, and so on. Here we might be cheered by a remark of Vernon Lee’s that she hoped to ‘obtain from art all that it can give, by refraining from asking it to give what it cannot’ (Lee 1883, 13). The second is that we might be able to pay more rewarding attention to the kinds of artifice and artistry in actions and practices that are not recognised as, or only intermittently allowed to be, arts. The third is that we might be able to make out more clearly and subject to informed and informative analysis the many blunders, illusions, sleights of hand and wish-fulfilments that have constituted the long history of belief in the powers of art – along the lines of post-religious examinations of religious thinking.

Given what I said earlier about trying not only to do without art, but also to do without the sweet pathos of doing without it, it would be agreeable if this were to result, not in a permanent vigilance, or hermeneutics of suspicion, in which we kept the superstitious denunciation of art and the aesthetic stoked up into incandescence, but rather a hermeneutics of permission, in which things were allowed to be, and become, as interesting as we could make them."

I guess he is saying that all will be illuminated and not merely "the special". That, I suppose, is as close to political as his essay gets.

Part of his reference to "doing without" quotes Sartre from his War Diaries: Notebooks From a Phoney War.

"In order to maintain my decision not to smoke, I had to realize a sort of decrystallization; that is, without exactly accounting for myself for what I was doing, I reduced the tobacco to being nothing but itself – an herb which burns. I cut its symbolic ties with the world; I persuaded myself that I was not taking anything away from the play at the theater, from the landscape, from the book which I was reading, if I considered them without my pipe; that is, I rebuilt my possession of these objects in modes other than that sacrificial ceremony."

When discussing Dessayake's argument of the intrinsic human propensity to set things apart, Connor says:

"But, if Ellen Dessanayake is right, then there is, after all, a single, essential feature of art, that allows us to posit for it a particular and necessary power. Like magic, as in the operations of the placebo, ‘art’ would stand for the very belief in the power of art. I have to acknowledge that, if this is really the power of art, a power that depends upon ‘art’ precisely being empty and without consistent predicates, then we might well be a little worse off and not better off doing without it There might well, that is, be something that we would no longer be able to count on, in the same way, perhaps, as if we forgot or abandoned the use of algebra and no longer had the capacity to manipulate the emptily indeterminate x and y.

Actually, though, what we would no longer be able to count on would be the faith, or the fear, that there was only one such mode of setting things eccentrically aside from themselves, without which the world would be condemned to a dreary, serial self-similitude. What I take from the argument about art’s capacity to confer specialness is what it may intimate of the many other ways we have, and have yet to invent, for othering things from, or into themselves. And in fact, the worst thing about giving art this unique privilege of creating specialness is precisely that it seems to encourage or even require us to reduce everything that is not art to featureless clinker."

Connor refers to Badiou and others' "astonishing willingness to reinstate the mystical authority and, even more implausibly, to proclaim the political promise of the aesthetic." Reading the wiki page on Badiou, particularly the section on the Handbook of Inaesthetics, I am referred to examples from the prose of Samuel Beckett and the poetry of Stephane Mallarme and Fernando Pessoa in relation to Badiou's view of the link between philosophy and art, which he claims functions so as to "arrange the forms of knowledge in a way that some truth may come to pierce a hole in them."

Now I have found something. The Works of Fernando Pessoa were unknown to me until now. One of his works in a strange connection to Sartre's thoughts on smoking is called "Tobacco Shop"

"But now a man's gone into the Tobacco Shop (to buy tobacco?)And the plausible reality of it all suddenly hits me.I'm getting up, full of energy, convinced, human,And about to write these lines, which say the opposite. "

Fernando Pessoa-himself, who as another aspect of Pessoa's multipersonality heteronyms stands apart from Pessoa himself, writes in his "Autopsychography" about the theme of art and artifice:

The poet is a faker

Who's so good at his act

He even fakes the pain

Of pain he feels in fact.

All I previously knew of Pessoa was a photograph of him with Aleister Crowley in 1930. A photo I and others thought was of someone else. Some say it isn't Pessoa at all but James Joyce. It could be just another chess player.

"His interest in mysticism led Pessoa to correspond with the occultist Aleister Crowley. He later helped Crowley plan an elaborate fake suicide when he visited Portugal in 1930. Pessoa translated Crowley's poem "Hymn To Pan" into Portuguese, and the catalogue of Pessoa's library shows that he possessed copies of Crowley's Magick in Theory and Practice and Confessions. Pessoa also wrote on Crowley's doctrine of Thelema in several fragments, including Moral, 129-130"

"for the most part, Pessoa remains as he was during his lifetime: an obscure, almost inexistent figure, among whose many aliases are to be found some of the most authentic voices in European literature."

Part of The Birmingham Group of writers of the 1930s he made the post war transition to man of letters after a few novels and is most known for his work The English Novel. Grub Street puns with its title on the hack writers and bohemians of 18th and 19th century London and the latter parts of the book describe a social set of post war London which included elements of the bohemian Fitzrovia crowd.

Fitzrovia or North Soho has always fascinated me as some prefiguring of a counterculture usually deemed to begin in the late 1950s. Certain figures straddle many eras and scenes including Augustus John, Nina Hamnett, Francis Bacon and Graham Greene. Fitzrovia, being positioned close to the BBC's buildings and the Ministry of Information in the interwar years, has classical music people merging with film people and early community theatre left-wingers like Joan Littlewood and Ewan MacColl infiltrating Children's Hour programming with socialist propaganda. Interestingly, while reading about MacColl and his surveillance by MI5, it is mentioned that he deserted from his military unit in 1941 and was invisible for the rest of the war, re-appearing at its end 4 years later and strangely being left alone by the authorities.

The characters who inhabited war time Britain who were not fighting in the services now become of some interest. Criminals and Spivs obviously come to mind and the many novels and films based on such characters. The biographies of people like Jack Spot and Billy Hill and how they ran the distribution of GI Px contraband for the black market and organised forgeries and paperwork for deserters. This was after the ruling Sabini Italian mob were busted for potential fascist infiltration, although the British mobsters were equally involved with all manner of undesirables and as Richardson gang bodyguard Mad Frankie Fraser put it, " Hitler ended the war far too early for us." The gangsters ruled the streets at that time with able-bodied police being in short supply.

Identity shifting seemed to be a factor for many not only for the criminals and dissenters but also for women. Many artists also took on new roles with the War effort channeling their need for income and employment into radically different areas voluntarily and involuntarily.

I also received a copy of Julian MacLaren-Ross' " Memoirs of the Fifties" through the post. MacLaren-Ross was another documentor of the period and geography, while much of the times and its images were collated by Daniel Farson, an early television pioneer of the challenging documentary about changes in social habits which eruptied in the mid to late 1950s.

I may write another entry dedicated to this book and its chronological comparisons with my own personal history after I fully digest its contents. I have taken quite large mouthfuls of it already, sometimes with the sweet before the savoury. It is short on pre 1960s references but has large sections relating to Richard Demarco. Demarco, one of the prime movers of Edinburgh arts in the 1960s has a digital archive online from which I have appropriated a rare picture of American Jim Haynes' Paperback Bookshop. Established in the University area in the late 1950s as Haynes settled into the city's arts scene, it promoted rare and censored material and was almost a branch of the Beat Movement's San Francisco based City Lights Bookshop in Scotland.

I have a lot of information already about precursors to the common idea of 1960s UK counterculture with, in Scotland's case, the eventual public clash of Hugh MacDiarmid's Scottish Renaissance with Alex Trocchi's "cosmopolitan scum" "sodomy" exemplifying a shift in values.

What I have already learned from Justifiable Sinners is how much action and activity was so close to me in the 1980s and yet was out of reach or behind unknown doors while I viewed from the periphery of scenes. The curse of the dealer to never really play the game. To know many people but to have no real friends. To be a connection but not be fully connected.

Recently I have been thinking about why I developed an interest in Beat writers and lifestyle when I was a teenager. It seems now that the Beat scene was male dominated and mostly white middle class. Herbert Huncke the prototype hustler/raconteur immortalised by early writers in the scene turns out to be a middle class dropout when all the time I thought he was a born street person. Neal Cassady is the only one who seemed to be of the "fellaheen" "other" stock which Kerouac romanticised as the salt of the earth peasant consciousness. Amir Baraka is the dominant black voice and the women writers associated with Beat were often marginalised and in one case described by Ginsberg as having a "particularity". Gary Snyder had a lapsed Marxist anarchism that he states was of working class roots noting that Buddhist studies could also learn from Western values. These Western values were the one thing they all seemed to reject and strove to form alternatives to, culminating in hippie countercultural ideas of dropping out.

I think in my case as a dissatisfied and restless 14 year old, the education and schooling I thought would release me from the day to day struggles of my environment and its industrial conditioning looked like being a deeper commitment to the capitalist program in its content. What were the options? Escaping into other ideas through stories and music and places, it was no mystery why a book with the title On The Road would appeal to a daydreaming wanderer in adult bookshops on days off from School. It didn't help that David Bowie rated these guys and that scene, so the trap was already set.

Another factor was the prospect of altering consciousness through drugs; an idea formed through observing musicians and countercultural descriptions in magazines and papers. The Sun newspaper swamped the TV advertising in the mid 70s with a series of pieces on The Beatles and their sex and drugs history. It was no big effort to grab copies of that with my Sparky comic on a Friday morning for my dad. Tony Palmer's All You Need Is Love was also running on TV and the 60s episodes were sort of mindblowing to my fragile needs. No one I knew lived like this. I would drop hints to teachers, leaving Burroughs books on my desk but their sense of responsibility made them resist my seductions. Eventually it was a guy who delivered milk who turned me on. I got a summer job with him and there was a lot of time to rap about life in the van. There was this long courting period where I learned about "cool" and was assessed. The Number one priority was could I keep my mouth shut, keep it together and pass my exams. During the waiting I found fellow inmates in search of a jailbreak and found that their sources were this other world of middle class dropouts with all these exotic new tastes. My weekends became these long trips into the Bohemian parts of town, reporting back drips and drabs to cagey schoolmates who were doing well in their "cool" studies. Eventually I got what is referred to as my "IN" to the larger freak scene in the city and the books, raps, people and lifestyle followed, BUT it jarred somewhat and was never a perfect fit. These people were not from my background and formative identifications were not shared or accepted. Like the prospect of University these were foreign situations to my family and friends and the move up the social ladder on my own was too much without support. So, I sat back and waited and waited and fell in a void, taking easy hits and affection as reasons for action.Of course there were political realisations. Many of my more intellectual friends before all this were well read Catholics with strong Irish republican sentiments. There was a canon of working class literature of resistance, much of which I later suspected was elitist propaganda by a literary intelligentsia exploiting the rising democratic rights of the working communities. HG Wells; DH Lawrence; even George Orwell. One night in a bar as I professed the new found freak lifestyle of drugs and Beat literature, a member of the Labour Party Young Socialists called drugs "a middle class escape from reality" - a bit like the "opium of the masses" statement of Marx. This made me think for a second that there were extreme ends to the interpretations: drug free and drug induced. There was a reasoned analysis of political culture and experience and there was the random carelessness of letting go of control.Ultimately altering the mind didn't alter the external conditions and neither did a full commitment to some exclusive political project. The answer is somewhere beyond that. Beyond identifications with Beat writers and freak lifestyles and trickle down philosophy from elitist cultural agendas. Watching The Maysles Brothers movie about The Rolling Stones at Altamont, Gimme Shelter, I confront the mythologies of the counterculture option but ALSO witness a frightening cinema verite of what went on at that event. Male domination with Grace Slick's chant of "Easy" having no power to pacify the crowd and the Hell's Angels. The Stones, the organisation, the promotion, the security - all male. One freak "organiser" calling the massive tailback of parked cars chaos but also an "experiment" in new living. Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead instantly quitting the scene when hearing of the Hell's Angels hitting a Jefferson Airplane band member, with the words, "So that's how it is". The most obvious victim of this chaos of dreaming and reneged responsibility being a black street hustler on methamphetamine at the hands of an equally victimised Outlaw force "employed" by a band of perfomers out of their depth in the prison of a Festival machine experiment going off the rails as it tries and fails to change the System by avoiding understanding the System.I mention this film and event because it means something to me now. Perhaps a personal "Altamont" of seeing that dreams really are over and hard reality needs to be faced and understood and worked with, unravelling the demons of delusion that were mere escape and deflected engagement with conditions - the conditions of my formative years which led me to today.

A typical Lynda la Plante crime twister about a British con being extradited back to Britain to turn informer. The police are one dimensional but this just leaves space for a character study of David Morrissey, the policeman on holiday who found the Timothy Dalton character and Dalton's sophisticated villain.

Thrown together in a custody cell for a few weeks for observation, Dalton begins to probe Morrissey's character and lifestyle and influences him to change. What happens is almost a love story as Morrissey, dissatisfied with his career, lifestyle and marriage takes to Dalton's new age diet, personality and attitudes.

There are no real homosexual hints, although there is some macho sharing over work-outs and boxing. Morrissey seems to change with the wild rice and salads he eats and comes to admire Dalton, eventually needing his approval as he buys new cashmere suits to impress him. In a sense he wants to consume the object of his affection, merging with his influence. A new desire is awakened in him switching off his relationship with his wife, and because this is not a homosexual seduction, Dalton throws him the bone of one of his girlfriends played by Penelope Cruz. You cannot have me physically, but you can have my lover.

Like many love affairs there is a giving in to impression, inspired by chronic discontent. Someone fills the repressed longing. There is care and charming consideration which at times is obviously manipulation. There are many elements to grooming from clothes and deodorant up to playing someone like a chess piece and creating their future moves. So all the negatives of this adoration are played out too, examining trust and commitment and the fear of manipulation and deceit. On both sides.

A good psychodrama always has me considering its aspects days after viewing. I am still trying to find Buckwheat ricecakes after hearing Dalton complain that they were not delivered in his shopping. His hypnotic influence was that pervasive.